We had our first goat baby born one week ago! On St. Patrick’s Day we were out building a new and bigger rabbit hutch, when Kevin noticed that Concho, our buck, was jumping around and acting crazy. I looked over and realized that our white doe, Mia, was in labor. We moved Concho and our other doe, Delilah, to another pen, and we called the kids to come watch the birth with us.
We stood there in quiet and reverent awe, fielding the expected questions from the kids as they whispered them under their collective breath. Then, in just a few minutes’ time, we were introduced to the newest addition to our farm – a solid white, pink-nosed, already-alert little goat. Mia instantly demonstrated her skills as an exceptional mother, cleaning and checking her baby and familiarizing herself with it by sniffing and nuzzling it repeatedly. She was such an attentive mother that we began calling her “Mama Mia.”
But there was still the question of what to name the baby. Since it was St. Patrick’s Day, we tossed around the requisite names “Patrick” for a boy and “Patty” for a girl. But neither of those seemed to fit our family’s personality or the playful nature of this new-to-the-world little creature. Within about 15 minutes, the baby was standing, and we could see that she was a sturdy and strong little girl! Later that evening, our friend, Andi, came over and remarked, “With her being born today, of course you’ve got to name her ‘Clover!’” That was the name! We all agreed we liked “Clover” as the name for Mia’s baby.
As the title of this blog suggests, Clover is tiny and sweet and fun to watch. She nurses and jumps around, lifting all four hooves off the ground simultaneously. She bounds around the pen trying to climb up on her mama’s back and checking out the new and exciting world around her.
We feel our only job is to make sure that mother and baby are comfortable and well-cared-for. Since St. Patrick’s Day night turned cold, we put a little coat on Clover made by our friend, Cindy. And the next night we turned an empty horse barn on our place into a goat resort – giving Mia and Clover (and our three-legged cat, Roadie, who decided she belonged there too) a space that would keep them extra warm and dry during the sudden cold snap. Equipped with a pile of straw, a heat lamp, fresh water, goat feed, and hand-picked fresh vegetation for Mia, we feel sure they will have everything they need for good health and happy bonding time with one another.
